Toyota’s Pending Arrival Already Impacts Local Economy
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When Toyota broke ground on April 18‚ 2007‚ for its $1.3 billion manufacturing operation near Tupelo‚ Tom Robinson was one busy man. That’s because‚ five weeks earlier‚ Toyota hired Tom Robinson & Associates to help plan and coordinate the festivities.
“They asked if we would like to team with them‚ and we worked very closely with Toyota from scratch. They were looking to us to use our knowledge of the area and our expertise to support the effort‚” says Robinson‚ whose Tupelo firm specializes in advertising‚ marketing‚ public relations and event planning.
Tents‚ tables and chairs‚ flooring‚ staging‚ lights‚ sound systems‚ audio visuals‚ entertainment‚ food‚ utensils and so much more were required to handle the hundreds of guests who received the coveted invitations.
“To my knowledge‚ there was not a glitch‚” Robinson says.
Many Toyota officials in town for the event stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn Tupelo‚ which realized more than 100 room bookings from Toyota in the first five months of 2007.
“Travelers were in our area prior to the announcement that Blue Springs had won the contract. They booked through a travel agency‚ so we didn’t identify them as Toyota right away. They were very clever‚” acknowledges Shari Long‚ director of sales for the Hilton and the BancorpSouth Conference Center next door.
The Hilton opened in late November 2006 and announced in May 2007 the addition of a second tower with 48 more rooms.
“Some of that is optimistic and speculative based on future business from Toyota. The other piece of the pie is that the convention business is doing very well‚ and we needed more rooms with two beds‚” Long explains.
The enormous impact of Toyota is being felt in smaller ways‚ also. Long says she is making changes to ensure that Japanese guests feel more at home. For example‚ she’s added a Japanese language television station to the list of hotel channels‚ put rice cookers in some rooms‚ expanded food choices to include traditional Japanese fare‚ researched trans lation services and printed her business cards with the information in Japanese on the back.
“The regional and national spotlight on our community is going to be huge‚” she says‚ “and we’ll be ready.”
Jerry Stubblefield‚ president of Tupelo-based JESCO Inc.‚ says he’s looking forward to the anticipated Toyota sup pliers that will locate within about a 60-mile radius of the site. JESCO is an industrial contractor that offers design‚ engineering‚ full-service construction‚ equipment installation and maintenance.
“Where I see our most promising opportunity is with the Tier I and Tier II suppliers. I hope to secure some of those‚” he says.
The telephones of professional real-estate agents already are ringing. Tommy Morgan‚ broker/owner of Coldwell Banker Tommy Morgan Realtors‚ says land speculators are in the area to secure sites for single-family residential‚ apart ments and retail.
“We’re seeing quite a bit of increase in demand all across the board – land‚ retail‚ residential and office‚” he says. Morgan predicts business growth will happen in phases‚ beginning by the Toyota construction phase‚ followed by a different phase when the automaker launches production – as well as other phases after that.
Ellen Short with TRI Inc. Realtors and J. Guyton Group Realty says she’s received “quite a few different types of inquiries. Our office actually not only does sales‚ but we do rental management both commercially and residentially‚ and there has been early interest in both. Every angle of business is being impacted already.”
Robinson agrees that both Toyota and its suppliers offer existing com pa nies in the region monumental prospects.
“We certainly hope to receive a share of that business. I’d like to receive it all‚ but that would be greedy!” he says‚ chuckling.
“As they say‚ a high tide raises all boats‚ so there’s plenty of opportunity for all of us to make our mark.”
Story by Woodie Knight
Photo by Sharon H. Fitzgerald
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